Relationship
Relationship Nicholas Hoult told Toni Collette that every time he sees her in a movie he says, ‘That’s my mom!’
The pair starred together as mother and son in 2002’s About a Boy when Hoult was just 11 years old.
Lester Fabian Brathwaite
While discussing some of her most iconic roles, from Muriel’s Wedding to The Sixth Sense to Hereditary for EW’s Role Call, the Oscar-nominee recalls how proud she is of seeing Hoult grow as an actor and the maternal bond she still has with him.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 28: Nicholas Hoult attends the premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Renfield” at Museum of Modern Art on March 28, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images); WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE WITH ANDY COHEN — Episode 20067 — Pictured: Toni Collette — (Photo by: Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images)
Nicholas Hoult (left) and Toni Collette
| Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
Based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, About a Boy starred Hugh Grant as spoiled, philandering cad Will Freeman who uses young Marcus Brewer (Hoult) to aid his dating life by posing as his son. Collette, replacing Emma Thompson, played Marcus’ depressed, suicidal mother Fiona.
“I kinda felt ripped off. My character was the saddo,” Collette joked. “Everyone else is having the time of their lives and I’m the suicidal lady with balls of snot hanging out of her nose in the kitchen.”
Despite being the saddo, Collette had nothing but praise for the writers and directors of the film, Paul and Chris Weitz, and for her on-screen son.
ABOUT A BOY, Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult, 2002, (c) Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
(l-r) Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, and Nicholas Hoult in ‘About a Boy’
| Credit: Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
“I love watching Nick Hoult grow and soar and evolve as an actor and as a person. I’m so proud of him,” Collette told EW. “It’s so funny being the mother to so many different kids and still having those kind of maternal feelings and hearing about them and watching them as they get older.”
“I ran into him, actually, at a Vanity Fair party for the Oscars a few years ago,” the Mafia Mamma star continued. “We’re standing in the middle of the dance floor, everyone’s dancing around us, we’re completely still, and he goes, ‘You know what? Every time I see you in a movie, I’m like, That’s my mom! That’s my mom!‘ It’s so funny, because that’s how I feel about him!”
Check out Collette taking a stroll down the memory lane of her career in EW’s Role Call below:
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